who being blessed with this world's goods would ask no pay, but on the
contrary would perhaps contribute a handsome sum towards the re-building
of the church. This, it may be explained, as the Mission itself scarcely
possessed a spare penny with which to bless itself, was a point that
could not be overlooked.

So Thomas was sent for and offered the post, after its difficulties and
drawbacks had been fairly but diplomatically explained to him. He did
not hesitate a minute, or at any rate five minutes; he took it at once,
feeling that his call had come; also that it was the very thing for
which he had been seeking. Up in that secluded spot in Portuguese
Territory he would, he reflected, be entirely on his own, a sort of
little bishop with no one to interfere with him, and able to have his
own way about everything, which in more civilised regions he found he
could not do. Here a set of older gentlemen, who were always appealing
to their experience of natives, continually put a spoke into his wheel,
bringing his boldest plans to naught. There it would be different.
He would fashion his own wheel and grind the witch-doctor with his
following to dust beneath its iron rim. He said that he would go at
once, and what is more, he promised a donation of 1,000 pounds towards
the rebuilding of the church and other burnt-out edifices.

"That is very generous of Bull," remarked the Dean when he had left the
room.

"Yes," said another dignitary, "only I think that the undertaking
must be looked upon as conditional. I understand, well, that the money
belongs to Mrs. Bull."

"Probably she will endorse the bond as she is a liberal little woman,"